What, Philippines belongs to China?

What? China now claims the Philippines as part of its territory by historic right? How would the Indonesians, who got here first in 4000-3000 BC and then in 1000 BC, feel? What about the Negritos, who preceded them by 25,000 years? Do not Chinese royal court archives mention trade with Luzon and Mindanao, so there had to be natives here ahead of them? Or were the ancient Chinese fudging trade documents to conceal smuggling, or melamine in infant formula and dog food?

China’s bold assertion was made by beauteous He Jia, news anchor for the nationally broadcast China Central Television (video grab in The STAR front page yesterday). Some say it was accidental; others, intentional. Whatever, what’s notable to the Philippines is that Ms. He looks like the lovelier Filipino radio-TV celebrity Ali Sotto. Is Chinese broadcasting aping the stylish Philippine media?

China laying claim to the Philippines was inevitable. It was beginning to look silly in the eyes of the world, mightily taking over only a part of Philippine waters, the Scarborough Shoal. That lagoon of rocks and sandbars is submerged during high tide. That a shoal, by definition, is uninhabitable shows up China’s historic claim to be farcical. Ancient Chinese may have been smart to invent gunpowder, but they couldn’t have built communities on a spit of rocks and sand 800 miles from Hong Kong, China’s nearest point. Luzon was only 120 more miles away. So China might as well take a step farther and claim the whole Philippines, to bolster its stake over Scarborough. By owning the Philippines, China need not spend millions of dollars exploring oil in the shoal. There’s proven gas at the Batasan.

But then, how would China impose its rule over the Philippines? Would it repopulate the 7,107 islands with Han the way it is doing in breakaway provinces like Tibet and Xinjiang, and prefectures in Sichuan and Qinghai? No need for that. Four of every five Malay-Filipinos have Chinese ancestry. (My maternal grandpa, gong gong, was Chinese, born in Cavite of parents from Fujian.) The risk is that it’s Filipinos who might repopulate China with Malay. Filipinos — taller, darker and handsomer — are more desirable.

China should take a lesson from the US annexation of the Philippines in the first half of the 20th century. The deed prompted thousands of Filipinos to migrate to mainland America in the 1920s-1930s for work. Soon Filipinos not only eased white males out of jobs but also were dating and mating white women. This triggered white nativist riots in Salinas, Stockton, Exeter, and Watsonville, California. A judge in San Francisco was so scandalized at what a Filipino farm worker must have that two white women brawled in the street over him. West Coast states enacted anti-miscegenation laws. Pressure grew so intense that the US Congress passed the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934, granting Philippine independence in ten years.

There’s also the risk of sabotage. Maoist Philippine communists are split into three. A Chinese takeover of the Philippines might disintegrate its one ruling party and People’s Liberation Army. Speaking of which, the Philippine army of 120,000 may be only one percent of China’s 11-million strong PLA. But Filipinos are not outgunned. As the nation debates how to eject 32 intruding Chinese vessels in Scarborough, a barrio in Pozorrubio, Pangasinan, and another in Cuenca, Batangas, are hunting down aswang and enkanto. Once found, the phantoms can be dispatched to lead the fight against Chinese domination.

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Geologist Jojo Manipon, formerly with the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, now with Philex Mines, amplifies my item last Monday on dengue:

“I read your warning about dengue outbreak in the coming rainy season. I was with a Mapua-Ateneo team that studied the tropical disease. I looked into the geographical factors in dengue outbreaks, while a mathematician was in charge of temporal predictions of outbreaks. The Department of Health provided the incidence data, by province. Our research saw no correlation between dengue cases and rainy or dry season, or even in flood-prone lowlands and highlands. Conclusion: dengue has no geographical or seasonal controls. We did find correlation between dengue incidence and high population density. Our molecular technologists offered the possibility of higher disease transmission when people are bunched together. Think of an Aedes Aegypti mosquito in a crowded MRT: scary! The dengue virus is already within the human population; the mosquito is not the source but merely the carrier.

“So let us guard against dengue all year round, especially in densely populated areas. Thank you for engaging our public in applied science, not just politics.”

Noel Suplido reacts to my piece last Wednesday about penalties for maltreatment by airlines of persons with disabilities and minors:

“I am a PWD overseas worker. In all my flights in and from the Philippines, not once have I heard in boarding announcements for the handicapped to board ahead, only seniors and minors. Our countrymen obviously need educating about the laws on PWDs.”

So with Meg Alag: “Your article brought back painful memories of shabby treatment as a PWD. One airline never affords passengers the use of the tube, on the pretext that it’s always out of order.”

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Readers, mostly from North America like Victor Bugayong, Rico Obsines, and Peter Smith are asking if there’s an electronic version of Exposés: Investigative Reporting for Clean Government. Sorry, no e-book yet.

You can place orders with [email protected], or [email protected]. Or have a friend buy and ship it to you from National Bookstore or Powerbooks. Happy reading.

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Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

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E-mail: [email protected]